Feb 2012
The air is warm today
With a soft and slight humidity
The perfect temperature
For an adventurer
The wisteria were in full bloom
Hanging from the basket of tree trunks
Overflowing purple and white petals
The birds sing songs of danger
Calling out territories
Guarding their new hatched young
Beautiful songs to me
Strike terror in the heart of some
Lone crow
I watch as two red breasted doves
Chase the angry crow from the crown of an evergreen
Their spinning and chirping looks playful and joyous
But courage beats in their little hearts
As they fight off the thieving devil
Blue skies are cloudless between the canopy
Yellow sunlight drifts down and through the branches
Creating radiant yellow pools on the moss and dirt
Squirrels chase each other through the glowing puddles
As if they too are playing
Down on a fallen stump
I sit
Counting the growth rings up to fifty
Sudennly I realize how young I am
How foolish and unknowing I am
Ancient trees loom around me speaking in leafy whispers
Deep dark sylvan beauty
A childish breeze blows through the treetops
Sudennly the most beautiful creature I have ever seen
Stands on a log across the clearing
I hide behind a thick tree
....was I seen?
Her thin shadow moves around the stump where I sat
She kneels to exam a row of ants
Crawling up an old root
She has a green notebook now open on her knees
She squiggles notes between the lines
Stopping to squint at the line of soldiers
Pointing and counting
..1....2....3....4.5....6..7....
She seems to count for a while
And then writes furiously
She sits on the stump
With the notebook in her lap
She has a beautiful little smile
The smile of someone
With a very secret-secret
That must be told
She could be a ghost
I know these woods are haunted
But the way she held the pencil between her teeth
As she counted the growth rings on the stump
Was not very ghostly
She drinks from a canteen
I must be thirsty
My mouth is quite dry
Maybe that's a good enough excuse
"Hello, my name is Jacob, and I have been watching you from the shadow of this tree for the past few minutes and I was wondering if I could have a drink?"
No, I cannot do that
Besides
I am a scientist
Only an observer
(A strand of her hair falls in her eyes and she puts puts it behind her ear)
Especially now because she has stood up and walked to the edge of the clearing
Where she kneels by a flower
And begins to draw it in her green notebook
Drawing and tracing
Hair behind her ear
A strand falls on her cheek as she works
So silent
My heart skips a beat as she finishes
picking a petal and placing it between the pages
With a soft and slight humidity
The perfect temperature
For an adventurer
The wisteria were in full bloom
Hanging from the basket of tree trunks
Overflowing purple and white petals
The birds sing songs of danger
Calling out territories
Guarding their new hatched young
Beautiful songs to me
Strike terror in the heart of some
Lone crow
I watch as two red breasted doves
Chase the angry crow from the crown of an evergreen
Their spinning and chirping looks playful and joyous
But courage beats in their little hearts
As they fight off the thieving devil
Blue skies are cloudless between the canopy
Yellow sunlight drifts down and through the branches
Creating radiant yellow pools on the moss and dirt
Squirrels chase each other through the glowing puddles
As if they too are playing
Down on a fallen stump
I sit
Counting the growth rings up to fifty
Sudennly I realize how young I am
How foolish and unknowing I am
Ancient trees loom around me speaking in leafy whispers
Deep dark sylvan beauty
A childish breeze blows through the treetops
Sudennly the most beautiful creature I have ever seen
Stands on a log across the clearing
I hide behind a thick tree
....was I seen?
Her thin shadow moves around the stump where I sat
She kneels to exam a row of ants
Crawling up an old root
She has a green notebook now open on her knees
She squiggles notes between the lines
Stopping to squint at the line of soldiers
Pointing and counting
..1....2....3....4.5....6..7....
She seems to count for a while
And then writes furiously
She sits on the stump
With the notebook in her lap
She has a beautiful little smile
The smile of someone
With a very secret-secret
That must be told
She could be a ghost
I know these woods are haunted
But the way she held the pencil between her teeth
As she counted the growth rings on the stump
Was not very ghostly
She drinks from a canteen
I must be thirsty
My mouth is quite dry
Maybe that's a good enough excuse
"Hello, my name is Jacob, and I have been watching you from the shadow of this tree for the past few minutes and I was wondering if I could have a drink?"
No, I cannot do that
Besides
I am a scientist
Only an observer
(A strand of her hair falls in her eyes and she puts puts it behind her ear)
Especially now because she has stood up and walked to the edge of the clearing
Where she kneels by a flower
And begins to draw it in her green notebook
Drawing and tracing
Hair behind her ear
A strand falls on her cheek as she works
So silent
My heart skips a beat as she finishes
picking a petal and placing it between the pages
